The invention relates to a device for compensating deviations from a coaxial arrangement of components of a regulating organ, said regulating arrangement being comprised of a regulating organ, a crown pipe, and an immersion cup which serve for controlling the gas pressure of a coke oven chamber, with the regulating arrangement being comprised of an immersion cup with a water immersion that seals the gas space of a coke oven chamber versus the gas collecting main and/or plant units downstream, and wherein the height of the water level of the water immersion represents a regulating means to control the gas pressure, and wherein said regulating arrangement is furthermore comprised of an immersion pipe that configures a specially shaped crown pipe at its end submerging into the water of the immersion cup, and that is comprised of a regulating organ to regulate the water level. The invention ensures that there occur no deviations in the concentric configuration of the regulating arrangement and that the lock plug of the regulating organ always moves centrically and tightly sealing into the envisaged sealing seat of the lock plug of the immersion cup.
On operation of coke oven chambers, a coking gas is produced which in general streams into the free gas space above the coke cake and which is conducted from there to further processing stages. The coking gas is obtained at a certain pressure which depends on the temporal course of the coal carbonization process. In general, the temporal course of the gas output from a coke oven chamber during the carbonizing cycle takes a well predictable course. As this course is not constant but dependent on the momentary stage of the carbonizing process, pressure fluctuations occur in the coke oven chamber gas space during the carbonizing process.
However, efforts are pursued to keep the gas pressure in the free gas space above the coke oven chamber as constant as possible throughout the entire duration of coal carbonization. Some configurations also permit an increase in gas pressure towards the end of the carbonizing cycle. In particular, however, efforts are pursued to rate the gas pressure in the coke oven chamber always at such a level that no ambient air is sucked into the oven, which can be achieved by ensuring that a slightly positive pressure versus the exterior atmosphere is always maintained by way of a suitable regulation of the gas pressure in the entire coke oven chamber.
For this reason, there are regulating devices by means of which the pressure of a coke oven chamber can be kept constant or be controlled, too, during the entire carbonizing process. An exemplary configuration for this purpose provides for conducting the coking gas to be discharged from a coke oven chamber through a water volume configured as a water immersion so that the gas pressure in the coke oven chamber is regulated by the level of the water immersion and by its pressure. Located above the water immersion is the gas space of a so-called gas collecting main which represents a collecting tank for discharged coking gas and which is constantly filled with a sump amount of water through the water flowing over from the immersion cup. As the pressure in the coke oven chamber and the pressure in the gas collecting main can be separated from each other by way of this design, the suction from the gas collecting main can be improved, thus enabling a better processing of coke oven gas and achieving reductions in emissions on the whole.
An exemplary design and the method applied thereby is disclosed in EP 649455 B1. The gas space of a coke oven chamber is connected to an ascension pipe which terminates into an ascension pipe elbow configured as an immersion pipe, said elbow submerging into a cup-shaped lock seal. This cup-shaped lock seal which is also designated as an immersion cup is filled with water through a coal water line. The coal water line is regulated via a regulating valve which dependent on pressure conditions in the coke oven chamber maintains the water level in the immersion cup at a precisely definable level. As this device can be provided for each individual coke oven chamber, it is thus possible to regulate the gas pressure in each individual coke oven chamber and to control the output of coking gas over the entire coke oven battery or coke oven bank via the time or to keep it constant. At its submerging end, the immersion pipe is provided with a special shape to prevent that an edge running in parallel to the water level leads to an over-swinging of the pressure control and to a pulsation of the immersion seal.
An advanced development of this device is described in US 2004/0084293 A1. Here the immersion pipe terminates in an immersion cup having an outlet similar to a drain outlet. It can be sealed with a plug-like control valve that can be moved by a motion bar leading through the immersion pipe into the drain outlet. In this manner, the drain outlet can be sealed so that the so-called immersion bucket taking charge of the function of the immersion cup constantly has a precisely controllable height of the water level. The coke oven chamber is equipped with pressure measuring devices by way of which the height of the motion bar and thus the water level in the immersion cup are controlled. Since the quantitative output of coke oven gas takes a similar course over the time during a carbonizing cycle, it can be recorded by a process computer so that modifications to the temporal adjustment of the motion bar in the course of the subsequent carbonizing cycles are small.
This system has a disadvantage in that the ascension pipe and the motion bar contained therein including the lock plug of the drain outlet may change in position in the envisaged sealing seat during the operation of the system. For example, this is due to expansion processes or settlement processes in the coke oven chamber caused by fluctuations in temperature during operation. As a result hereof, the lock plug fails to seal tightly so that the water level in the immersion cup is no longer reliably controllable during operation. In particular, for example, the motion bar might be bent or the immersion cup might be dislocated laterally. This leads to a non-controlled change of the water level in the immersion cup and thus to a no longer controllable pressure in the coke oven chamber.